The present invention relates to providing video and bidirectional control through a common interface to a display device of a computer system.
FIG. 1 illustrates a portion of a computer system connected to a monitor. For the convenience of the user, a USB port has been provided at the monitor. In order to provide the USB functionality at the monitor, a USB port of the system has been connected to a second USB port (not shown) on the monitor. Generally, the USB port provided at the monitor is merely passed through for the user""s convenience. This eliminates the user having to connect to the chassis of a computer system, which can be hard to access, whenever a peripheral is desired to be added. The computer system also illustrates a video graphics adapter providing a signal to the video cable driving the monitor of the prior art system.
The prior art implementation of FIG. 1 is often inconvenient because multiple cables are needed to be connected to the monitor. This adds cost to the system and is inconvenient. One prior art solution was proposed using a plug-and display (PandD) cable. This cable was designed to be a universal video interface which provided both digital and analog interfaces for video data together with serial bus options. However, the plug-and display standard has been largely rejected due to the bulky size of the cable, the cost of providing both digital and analog signals when in many instances only one of the signals is required, and due to the size of the connector to support such a cable.
Therefore, an interface solution that eliminated the number of connections required at the monitor, and maintained convenience and existing standards would be desirable.